[a cry for help] AW broke my brain

I put this in blood & guts because it concerns hacking, more or less.

Here's a move I wrote to illustrate my situation:

whenever you try to write a game, roll +game designer. On 10+ choose 3, on 7-9 choose 2, on a miss your game is crap.
-your new game is not an AW hack
-your game is awesome
-your game is fun
-your game is well designed

What's going on? You might have seen my Sagas of the Icelanders hack. Thing is, before AW came along, that was its own game in-the-making, new mechanics, all that stuff. There's also the matter of a gritty surreal fantasy game I've been toying with for a while. I had a bunch of concepts and some loose mechanical bits. Now, all I can think of is how to make it an AW hack. There are other examples.

When I think of how to tackle a design problem, the moves are staring me in the face, poking my eye with a long knife. I cannot think of mechanics outside moves. It's all I can muster. Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit, but you get my point.

Now, there are many pros to this:
-in a way, that means that more people will read and play my game if it's a hack of a popular game (probably)
-AW is just awesome, so what could be wrong with that
-moves are elegant and intuitive, they're something I've been looking for in games for a long time, why not use them

The cons, well, I don't know. For one I fear I will get oversaturated, also, I feel robbed of my originality. Vincent, you robbed me! Then there's the fact that a lot of other people are making hacks. Do we really need another one? Well, yes and no. Last but not least, am I really doing my games a favour by turning them into AW hacks? Again, yes and no.

But yeah, just wanted to get this off my chest. Screw it, AW is a brilliant game. Make more hacks people, Bulwark, Knife & Candle and Dragon Killer are making me happy in my pants. Dead Weight, too.

Every game is a hack of other games. Dogs is a hack of Trollbabe. AW itself is a hack.

I think starting out a design being aware of your hackiness is generally a good thing. The thing to stay on guard about is your vision. Is this serving my vision(s) for the game? If the answer is yes, then you're good, whatever the origin.

Some things:

First: I think you and I should join forces on the Arcano-punk Front.

Second: I'd like to note that new games will have to be AW hack in order to awesome, fun and well-designed. I see what you did there and it is awesome.

Third: the Otherkind dice are such powerful mechanics BECAUSE THEY EMPLOY QUANTUM COMPUTING. Seriously, three states? Totally obvious and totally awesome. And you know what that third state is? WHEN SHIT GETS REAL.

Fourth: man, I came up with some pretty intensive mechanical hacks of the Dogs core mechanic. And then Vx & Jx start dropping bombs with AW and GHOST/ECHO. Motherfuckers.

Fifth, you know what the funny thing is? Apocalypse World as written can cover pretty much anything with the smallest of flavour modification. Better still, is that even without, it's still an awesome game that you can play start to finish in, say, six hours. With anyone. Trad, Indie, Freelance, whatever. Shit's fucking slick. Like, I've been to cons and game days before and running games (even Lady Blackbird) is kinda stressful and not everyone gets it etc etc. But AW? Shit almost runs itself. That's so you can spend all your energy being awesome and playing the fuck out of NPCs and the like.

You're not the only person who currently has this problem, or the first, or the last.

Vincent did something really revolutionary here, laying out the guts of his game and explaining why and how it works. And it does something really unique, and the structure is the clearest implementation of that certain kind of game style I've seen— and it's a really fun gamestyle that a lot of people enjoy. It's going to be around for a while.

Don't feel bad about hacking it. If you weren't supposed to hack it, then there wouldn't be all of this support for hacks and all of that text on how to hack it. Embrace what you're doing, and feel SMUG: someone else did a lot of the work, making your work more fun. That makes you awesome.

Here's Trollbabe.

Stats
Fighting
Magic
Social

Your stats sum to 0. Min -1, max +3.

When you fight, roll+fighting. On a 10+ you defeat them. On a 7-9, choose one:
- You're put in a bad position but can keep fighting. Take -1 forward.
- You suffer harm and do harm to the enemy. The fight isn't resolved yet.
- You walk away scott free.

I better stop there.

I HAVE AW BRAIN DAMAGE.

{from my phone}
When you listen for echoes in the ghost field, roll +wired.

When you run, climb or hide, roll +mousey.

When you're talking over something that's at stake, roll +acuiety+heart.
10+ reverse the blow
7-9 block or dodge
On miss give or escalate

{avec intention comique}

Here's how to play Primetime Adventures with Apocalypse World

When you want anything, roll +screenpresence.

On a 10+, you get what you want.
On a 7-9, you get what you want, but choose one.

• tears
• loud slap
• angry sex
• storming out of the room

Here's how to play Primetime Adventures with Apocalypse World

I am hacking Playbook: Bob Saget right now.

When you require a custom move, roll +hx with the MC.

On a 10+, choose a stat, and make a list of four good things. Roll the stat: on a 10+, you pick three, on a 7-9, pick one.

On a 7-9, the MC chooses a stat, and makes a list of four bad things. Roll the stat: One  a 10+, pick one, on a 7-9, pick three.

On a miss, the MC will tell you what the custom move looks like. You're probably not going to like it.

Quote from: Matt Wilson on June 29, 2010, 02:15:52 PM

Here's how to play Primetime Adventures with Apocalypse World

I am hacking Playbook: Bob Saget right now.

If you're playing Entourage, Bob gets all the sex moves.

Someone mentioned, in an irc channel I hang out, running a Lady Gaga game. To which I replied:

"Roll +fashion. On a 10+, awesome. On a 7-9, a little TOO awesome. On a miss, much, much too awesome."

On a miss, you fall down in an airport in front of everyone because your boots are 10 inches high. Choose 1:

 - You're much more interested in getting attention than you are in being a music artist.